Hi Andrew,
We don’t force immediate updates, but we do ask that you update within 7 days of a the release of a new version.
We operate the 7 day policy, because we want you to have the option of being able to leave the system running unattended, for several days at a time, but we have to set a limit, otherwise, if serious bugs arise, it could be financially detrimental.
A VPS is a great idea, several people have suggested this. Once I know of is “Simply Cloud” (Tagadab). there many be cheaper options…